Now if it was me, I’d have run this sale when I knew that more of my readers were checking important stuff out on their computers, i.e., 9 AM, Monday morning. But they are doing it RIGHT NOW, and the goal is to try to sell enough copies to make it onto the Times Bestseller List. I fully expect to get a pony first, but we would certainly appreciate it if we did.

Today I finished up the cover to the new collection; Beast of the Rails, for which we’ll be running a Kickstarter sometime in March.

Today I am drawing away on the cover for the next Girl Genius Collection. Now drawing is different from writing, in that I don’t have to cogitate, really. This allows me to listen to podcasts and other spoken-word thingies that would completely derail me if I was writing. Today I was listening to the audiobook version of our latest novel; Agatha H & The Voice of the Castle. (And yes, I do so for reasons other than sheer vanity) I had been wondering when I’d get to, as I had seen that it was out awhile ago, but had not received a copy from our publishers. I finally asked, and discovered that as far as contractually obligated freebies go, our publisher lets us download a free copy off of Audible (http://www.amazon.com/Agatha-H-Voice-Castle/dp/B00R1WQ2NY/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1425097811). This pleasant, as it meant that less than three minutes later, it was playing on my computer.

Once again the reader is Ms. Angela Dawe, who does a crackerjack job. It sells for about $18, and is over 17 hours long, so from a time/motion standpoint, it’s a pretty sweet deal. Even better, when you consider that if you’re signing up for the first time, you can get it for free (relax, we still get paid). So check it out!

The Legendary Showdown KickStarter is doing well. This is gratifying, since Girl Genius is one of the two webcomics featured in this edition. The other comic in this set, Gunnerkrigg Court, is consistently on the list of our readers’ favorite webcomics, and rightly so. It’s a wonderful work. We’re very pleased to be in the same set!

If you haven’t yet had a look at the KS page, you really should, they have some fun rewards that I’m quite looking forward to. The coins are especially lovely. I’m planning to use the Moxana one as a watch fob. Actually, that’s what I designed it for. I know it was supposed to be a challenge coin, but I have never been handed a challenge coin without wishing it had a hole in it so I could use it for…well, anything at all, really. I’m a bad collector. (Not that you’d know it to look at the piles of stuff in my house.)

I really love that first one, with the robot from Gunnerkrigg. I’ve never worked with the company that makes these, myself, (these coins are being done by Killer Robot Games, not by Studio Foglio) but I think I’ll be contacting them. I really like the look of these samples. They’re getting a lot of nice depth in the relief.

You’ll notice that the TPU one looks weird…that’s because I turned the design in kind of late. So there are samples made of all the others, but not that one…not yet. Argh. Still, I think it’ll look great. It’s the fob that all the sparks who’ve been at TPU carry so they can flash it at their colleagues at the Mad Scientist conventions and inspire comradery, envy, or bitter rivalry, depending upon the situation. The Moxana one is, of course, a souvenir from Master Payne’s Circus of Adventure.

Our last reading went so well, that we are enthusiastically doing another one this weekend!

It’s at Ada’s Technical Books (http://www.seattletechnicalbooks.com/), which is, hands down, one of the best bookstores in Seattle. We will be there on Saturday, starting at four. We’ll do a reading, answer questions, and sign anything people take the trouble to haul in. If you’re in Seattle this weekend, please join us.

I have heard from a number of fans because they wish to nominate us for the Hugo Awards (which is accepting nominations at the moment), but we have, until now, not provided an actual title for the volume that would be under consideration. A fine example of our marketing prowess, yes?

Now since we’ve entered a new act in the story of Agatha Heterodyne, we are emphasizing this by changing the actual structure of the book titles. Up until now, they’ve always been “Agatha Heterodyne and the Something or Other”. This particular convention was a nod to the old, adverb-laced Tom Swift books, which were lumbered with titles such as “Tom Swift and His Big Dirigible” or “Tom Swift and His House On Wheels”. Amusing (to us, anyway), but it’s been fourteen years already. Time for a change.

And so, the title for the new volume is “Girl Genius; The Beast of the Rails”. Ta dah!

We plan on doing a Kickstarter for this sometime late this month, or early March at the latest, and when we do, we’ll let you all know about it.